Thursday, February 23, 2012

So I've been away from the American church for a while and during that period my relationship with her has been a little dysfunctional.

We were sent by her and supported by her and what I’m beginning to realize is that distance has caused some separation.The American church has grown and evolved as have I, just on different tracks and at different speeds.

So I’ve been back now for over a year and I have to be honest, the toughest part of the transition was not fitting into a new, secular job.It was not a new school or a new diet or a new home or a new car or a new culture.It was and continues to be seeing how I fit into the American church.

I don’t.

Most Sundays are agonizing.And it doesn’t have to do with the local ‘church’ that we’re ‘attending’.We’ve felt this way at all of the ‘churches’ we’ve ‘attended’ since we’ve been back.And it isn’t that we’re bitter or jaded – we are really involved and love the church and pray for her a lot.It also isn’t because we have all the answers, because we don’t.All I can fall back on is a vague, and sometimes not so vague, sense that something simply isn’t right, that something simply doesn’t fit.

So, for a year I’ve wondered how to express what I’m feeling and experiencing and thinking.I honestly didn’t expect this.In all of my dreams of what I wanted to do and pursue in this idea of the sunken church, disillusionment with the American church didn’t really play into it. I hadn’t really experienced it before or if I had, it was masked in that dysfunctional, long-distance relationship.

I want to belong; I really do.But I don’t want to be a member.I want people in my life to be able to tell that I belong by my words and my actions.I don’t want a ceremony or a trite prayer.I want to be swept up in something bigger than myself.I want to come alongside brothers and sisters, beside friends who share a similar view of the Kingdom and the need around us.I want to belong to a community of people that are brave enough to throw out old forms and dream of new ones.

It’s strange.

In spite of all of this angst, I couldn’t tell you when I have felt more full, more alive, more myself…more in tune with God's will for my life...

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The Sunken Church

This blog follows the life, ministry and adventures of the Casey family. We were missionaries in Ancona, Italy from 2000 until 2011. We are now adventuring in the US of A, experimenting with running a business, growing a garden, raising a family and challenging the Church to break outside the box and adopt new forms to reach a new generation with the truth of the Gospel.

di Ancona

About Me

Born in Santiago, Chile I have grown up on the move - lived in some 15 different homes. I am a 'word' person - enjoying almost anything to do with books and literature. I love exploring God's great world and helping people find their place in it.

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sunken

The story goes like this:

There once was a church down by the port in Ancona, Italy. With the passing of time, shaken by earthquakes and beaten by the winds, the foundations of the church crumbled and the church toppled into the sea. A friend of ours shared with us that she remembers, as a little girl, playing along the pier and seeing the remains of the church under the water. She remembers seeing the cross from the top of the church under the surface. She told us that some say that if the wind was strong enough and the waves choppy enough, you could even hear the bells...

The story leads to this question:

If we were to raise her out of the water, if we were to restore her completely to what she was originally intended to be...what would she look like? If we were to remove her from all the traditions that humankind has surrounded her with and drowned her in...who would she be?